Review: Winner’s Kiss

The Winner’s Kiss (The Winner’s Curse #3)
Author: Marie Rutkoski
496 Pages
Published March 29, 2016

Synopsis

War has begun. Arin is in the thick of it with untrustworthy new allies and the empire as his enemy. Though he has convinced himself that he no longer loves Kestrel, Arin hasn’t forgotten her, or how she became exactly the kind of person he has always despised. She cared more for the empire than she did for the lives of innocent people—and certainly more than she did for him.

At least, that’s what he thinks.

In the frozen north, Kestrel is a prisoner in a brutal work camp. As she searches desperately for a way to escape, she wishes Arin could know what she sacrificed for him. She wishes she could make the empire pay for what they’ve done to her.

But no one gets what they want just by wishing.

As the war intensifies, both Kestrel and Arin discover that the world is changing. The East is pitted against the West, and they are caught in between. With so much to lose, can anybody really win?

 Review

We, the dedicated readers, have finally been blessed with The Winner’s Kiss, after so much waiting to see what Kestrel and Arin’s fate was to be. And to be completely honest I was sorely let down and disappointed.

This book was nothing like the The Winner’s Curse and The Winner’s Crime. I absolutely adored the first two, with Kestrel being this strong-headed, smart, and opinionated woman and Arin being adorable, ruthless, and sweet as ever. Their forbidden love kept me turning the pages to find out what would happen next between them. The Winner’s Kiss, however, did not deliver for me. I found it extremely boring and slow. The story was pretty much all about the war, which is fine, but it was such a different spin from the first two books. I found that the war story didn’t have me turning pages ridiculously fast, I felt that Kestrel and Arin were not in sync anymore, and when they found their way back to each other it was just plain annoying. I even found myself hating Arin a little bit – he became so controlling over Kestrel. 

It’s like Kestrel had luck on her side every time she helped Roshar and Arin plot and plan against the Valorian army – always guessing 100 percent correctly what her father would do. She should have been wrong once or twice because NO ONE is that good at guessing what another human being would do, no matter how well they knew them, unless of course if you were a Seer or something. 

I disliked how Rutkoksi all of a sudden had Arin doing so many things because his “god” (of Death) protected him and all that. I can’t even try to describe what was going on there. It was such a turn from the previous books. Arin had so many conversations with his god, and did things because his god told him too. It just rubbed me the wrong way and I found myself skimming over those little bit of conversations.

I also was not a fan with the dual point of view – especially in the final chapters when the end of the fighting/war was happening. I’m assuming Rutkoski did this to get us sitting on the edge of our seats, but I felt it dragged the story out even more. 

Looking back at it, I’m not sure what I liked in this story. Maybe Roshar. He was witty and funny and his comebacks made me smile. That is about it for what I liked about the book. I am sad to say I was happy when I finished the book; happy to be done with it. I highly recommend reading the series if you have not picked it up yet, my opinion on The Winner’s Kiss is definitely the unpopular one. So go ahead and give it a try.